Jackie, your arguments and ideas carry a lot of force. I wonder, though,
if when you describe the direction in general toward which U.S.
"organizations as community" move (or do not move), you are glossing over
particular examples which defy the power of your expression.
There are companies of 50 to 500 employees, for example, located in rural
areas, where a local population works. The product of their effort is
sold internationally. These companies think globally, act locally, while
also thinking locally and acting globally.
Organizational development in some of these companies has suffered from
importation of weak, traditional big-time management models which behavior
is for this list the flotsam and jetsam of the '50's and before; the
"good" of both community and organization breathed in one breath is
stifled (but NOT suffocated) by such veils of mediocrity.
On the good side of the ledger: organizations who by sundry means are
climbing out of such models. In such organizations the cross-over from
biological family to economically tied "family" is neither far-fetched nor
uncommon. Two or more biological generations work in the same
organization. Sharing is common inside and outside the workplace .
Visitors note honest pride of place; ability; a peculiar dynamic symmetry.
Sure, there's an underbelly, but the preponderant energy is positive as we
would like to define it.
All this to say, Jackie, that there are at least pockets of competence of
the kind we peck about on this list. I know others would echo my ideas
without feeling this is an apologia.
Your idea for a "Learning Financial Market" (LFM) if brilliant! I assume
somebody out there is already at work on it....
Kind regards,
-- Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>